The day after tomorrow is Independence Day, and there’s nothing more independent than building out your own workshop. I started digging into our magazine archives and found a number of articles on building your own router table.
All four of these designs are available in our store as part of the magazine issues in which they originally appeared. And speaking of no-nonsense designs for your workshop, there is one more router table and 23 other projects in our new book from Danny Proulx, “Practical Woodshop Projects.” Danny was famous for his stripped-down approach. Celebrate your independence by spending a lot of time in your shop this weekend and making it that much easier to use! Christopher Schwarz has helped many of us solve some pretty frustrating problems over the years.
As we wait for final electrical approval for our new shop, we can’t help but consider alternatives to 220 volts. If you want to see some of these old machines in action, take a visit to Blue Ox Millworks in Eureka, Calif. As kids we had a Hobbies treadle fretsaw in the shed and, next to the firewood axe, it was our favourite thing. We have exact replicas of many of these tools at the Steppingstone Museum up in Havre de Grace, MD too. I built the storage cabinet portion of this project for use with both floor and bench models.
The top drawer has two full-extension drawer slides and can hold drill bits on an indexed board; the other two drawers can hold accessories, literature and other tools for the shop.
Picture frames are one of those woodworking projects that we all assume we know how to make. The rabbet in the back of the frame material doesn’t need to be wide, but it must be deep enough to fit the glass, mat and foam board.
If the profile of your frame material isn’t consistent, it will create problems at some point in cutting and assembling the frame. If you’re making a frame with a shaped profile, use featherboards on the router table when you mill the profiles.
Unless the frame is extraordinarily large, glued butt-miter joints will have sufficient strength. This sizing coat will allow a second coat of glue, applied just before jointing, to do its job. Some framing clamps hold the pieces at a right angle, but don’t exert any pressure across the joint.
There is a special driver made for glazier points, but they can also be pressed into the wood with the tip of a common screwdriver.
I like to keep the glass, mat board and image out of the shop until the frame is completely finished and I’m ready to assemble it. Braided wire is twisted around the loop in the hanger, and the hanger is held in place with a screw.
A hanging loop is screwed to each of the vertical frame parts, and a length of braided wire goes between the loops. For six years, this Franklin, Ind., enterprise has been cranking out wooden vise screws for workbench builders. There are plans for a traditional face vise, tail vise, wagon vise, leg vise, twin screw and others. It’s actually remarkable that we now have (at least) three companies to choose from when shopping for a threaded wooden vise screw.
All three of these wooden screw companies are small family-run shops that turn out products that haven’t been on the market for almost a century. Chris is a contributing editor to Popular Woodworking Magazine and the publisher at Lost Art Press. The Beall Tool Company sells a fixture that you can purchase and make all the wooden screws you will ever want. I seen them across from your booth,definately thinking of useing them when I build my bench first of next year! This is the case with shop drawings, cutlists, and the adoption of SketchUp as a design and planning tool. Then I grab the dimension tool from the toolbar and put in the dimensions I want to see when I’m selecting material and fabricating the parts.
For me, this is the ultimate reason for using SketchUp, it speeds up the process and gets me out to the shop sooner, armed with reliable information so I don’t have to stop building to revisit the planning. I used to use Autocad, then downloaded the free version of Sketchup, and then watched a few of Mr. Hi Robert… I have taken up woodworking as a hobby and have built a number of projects, several fairly complex. I don’t think the shop is a safe environment for a computer, but sometimes it is worth the hike to check on something that I neglected to print. I do have the pro version, but prints like I am talking about can be done with the free version of SketchUp. The only upgrade to your 2009 post that I’d like to suggest is your selection of spray adhesive.
Sketchup does has a learning curve, but with watching Bob Langs Sketchup videos it is greatly reduced.
Bob, while I believe Sketchup is a great way to design projects, there is (at least for me) a steep learning curve. With a systematic approach to learning how to use the software it doesn’t take that long to learn, and the benefits are worth it.
Planning with SketchUp doesn’t keep me out of the shop, it makes the time I spend in the shop more productive and enjoyable. AutoCad is old, expensive and difficult but it works very well when you get used to it and it doesn’t need a new computer, it just goes a bit slower.
Actually, AutoCAD is new, expensive & difficult to learn and requires an extremely powerful late model PC, unless you happen to have bought a copy a long time ago. I improved the tabletop of my bottom-of-the-line table saw, and the saw’s performance has gone through the roof. To create the zero-clearance opening, I clamped the auxiliary top to the table saw’s top, turned on the saw and slowly raised the blade.
The MDF piece that faces the saw blade is tall to provide support for thicker or taller workpieces.
To add the “T,” I placed the face of the fence against the raised blade and clamped it to the table. In use, I secure the fence with two clamps – one in front and one in back – after making sure the fence is parallel to the blade. To further enhance your new top, you can include miter tracks, adhesive measuring tape along the front edge and permanent hold-downs for the fence to eliminate the need for clamps.
Ever since we published plans for the Holtzapffel Cabinetmaker’s Workbench in Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine, readers have requested information on how to build the bench so it could be easily knocked down and moved. The version I built and published plans for in Issue 8 used old-world bench-building principles where the legs were tenoned into the top and the base parts were permanently drawbored.
By the way, if you missed my daily blog posts about this class, you can find them over at the Popular Woodworking editor’s blog by clicking below. This weekend my blisters from the class began to fade, and so I cleaned up the construction drawing and cutting list a bit , you can download them for free below. I was thinking about using unglued tenons to attach the top as you mentioned in another article. You said that you went from the large to small quick-release end vise so the vise travel did not hit the top stretchers on the knock down bench. With regard to the drawbolts passing through the tenons of the short stretcher, I lowered the short stretchers close to the floor so that wouldn’t be an issue. In a similar vein (following rules for rules sake) I also used haunched tenons in the top stretchers, completely unnecessary, given the massive nature of all the components.
When you bore a hole through the leg to allow the use of bolts on the long stretchers I assume that you are also boring a hole through the tenons of the short stretchers as the latter are in the path of the hole. I ask as I don’t have a shop and would need to knock down and store the bench between uses during the day.

Not sure how the Schwarz did it, but on my bench the overhang is long enough that with a thick wooden chop on the end vise the guide bars don’t hit the upper stretcher. I understand how adding another strecher to the side assembly makes it much easier to break down the bench, but doesn’t the right hand one interfere with the end vise’s mechanism?
I also drilled the holes for the bolts rather than routing out a channel, and counterbored the legs for the bolt head and washer so that it was recessed below the wood surface.
Lastly, my top stretchers are quite a bit thicker and extend the full width of the bench…the legs are mortised into it rather than the other way around. The Excalibur Deluxe Router Table Kit (#40-200) from General International is a complete shop setup that was introduced in late 2012. Unlike the traditional two-post design of most lifts (where a single lift screw carries the router up and down), on the Excalibur unit, lift screws are positioned at all four corners.
Almost any size router motor can be used with this lift, however, it’s designed for today’s largest motors. Another top-shelf feature is the 3-3?4″-diameter insert rings and how they fit to the lift’s top plate.
If you’re a regular router user, you know shavings and wood dust can quickly pile up as you profile mouldings or plow grooves. The fence system has sliding faces that fit tight to your router bit; that’s for minimal air access to improve dust collection. The fence’s dust port is ducted into a 4″ port located on the back of the steel enclosure. The adjustable vent allows you to coordinate extraction and maximize efficiencies based on the power of your dust collector – the smaller your collector, the more wide open the vent. After making many feet of moulding, I found only a trace amount of dust left in the enclosure.
I did quickly discover, however, that there is no on-board bit storage as there is in our other router cabinet. Glen Huey is a former managing editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine, a period furniture maker and author of numerous woodworking books, videos and magazine articles. Workshop projects are a double bonus because you save money by building fixtures yourself, and then you save money and gain independence while using them. This one is quite compact, stores easily and mounts to the top of your workbench when needed. In the late 1800s and early 1900s there were many non-electric choices, including lathes, table saws, scroll saws and combination machines. It is cleverly built with a offset weight in the flywheel so that the bit rotates in the proper clockwise direction with the first push. Deceptively simple in concept, yet demanding in execution, it is only simple to assemble a frame if all the parts are near perfection.
Square stock, such as the wave-form mouldings I used, should be as straight, flat and square as possible. Variations may not be noticeable in a stick of frame material, but they will be screaming for attention when two parts meet at a mitered corner. A fraction of a degree may not seem worthy of concern in one cut, but there are eight edges in a mitered frame to put against each other. When you think your saw is cutting a good 45? angle, place two pieces together on a flat surface, such as the table of your table saw.
Getting a good glue joint requires some extra care as the nature of the wood cut at an angle introduces a problem. These spring clamps pull the pieces toward one another, so the joints are tight and the pieces don’t slide around.
Wood glues dry in stages; you may be able to remove the clamps within an hour, but the bond won’t achieve full strength for a much longer period. Dust or a greasy fingerprint on the image or the inside of the glass will mean taking the assembly apart.
Even if you don’t buy one of their wooden screws, the plans offer a lot of good ideas for how you could adapt a vintage wood screw into your workbench.
And you’ll find the prices very close to those offered by Lake Erie Toolworks and Big Wood Vise. When I built my first bench with wooden screws, the Holtzapffel, I bought my screws from some guy who bought them a decade earlier at some California flea market. It’s a huge American-made book that has several plans for benches incorporating wooden vise screws. If you know something has worked well for other woodworkers for a few hundreds years, you can likely assume that adopting it will be a good way to accomplish what you want to do. I did make some prints from the model to use as a reference in the shop, but what I find useful when building doesn’t look like a traditional drawing. In addition to an easy to use cutlist, I also generated full size patterns for the shape of the side pieces.
You could input your existing board dimensions, the size of your saw kerf etc and actually replicate the production process. I like using it not only to get a cutlist and overall board feet measurements, but it points out mistakes. It’s a lot like learning a language, if you just poke around randomly it takes forever to get the hang of it.
I catch things while working in SketchUp that have a significant cost in either wasted time or wasted materials if I just head to the shop. I can concentrate on the enjoyable parts of building without worrying about whether or not things will fit because I’ve already made the project on the computer. If you have lot of round holes the program will forget them in part or as a hole if the computer is too old or weak.
The surface on either side of the blade must be 90? to the blade, otherwise accuracy is compromised. But when Kelly Mehler and I taught a class in constructing the bench last month, we decided to modify the plans to make the whole thing break down for easy transport. A potential side benefit to this is that the short stretchers might someday support a handy tool shelf bellow the level of the long stretchers. I’ve built several benches using this arrangement with complete success over years of use. Also included is a steel enclosure that houses your router and a fence with an integral 2-1?4″ dust port to provide optimal dust collection. Excalibur has taken a cue from one of the most robust machines found in the woodshop, the thickness planer. To install other motors you need to use one of two available reducer collars; these are optional accessories.
Dust collection is important and is often overlooked, or it’s a secondary thought during the design phase.
Through one side of the enclosure you squeeze your power cord; on the other there is an adjustable air vent. If anything, the fact that Popular Woodworking Magazine has not published a router table plan for over four years makes us a little different.
You might want to mix and match different design aspects to create your own unique router table. These days Dan is a former online editor for Popular Woodworking, and is learning new skills every day.
Can you send us some pictures or post them on our Facebook timeline when you have finished? Back in 1973, Eric Hollenbeck started a salvage logging company that grew to include a millwork shop that specializes in authentic Victorian era details, a living history park and a hands-on educational program in conjunction with the local school. However, all presses lack good storage space and often have tables that are difficult to adjust or less than ideal for woodworking.
If you own a floor-model drill press, measure the width and height of the base to ensure that the cabinet can be rolled over the machine’s base before you begin construction. So unless you plan on making lots of frames, you are better off simply buying precut mat and glass. I saved time and money by pulling precut glass and mat board from a bin, instead of having them custom cut at an odd size.
Without a table saw, it can be cut with a straightedge and a utility knife by making repeated passes alongside the straightedge.

If you make sloppy cuts and try to shoot the miters, you will need to reference one piece off another to make them equal lengths, then adjust the rabbet with a shoulder plane. The gluing surface is mostly end grain, and glue tends to wick into the wood and away from the joint.
Without a fastener, they are good only for positioning – they can’t press the parts against each other as a clamp should. If you use good old yellow glue, let it sit overnight before doing anything to the frame that might stress the joints. On a moulded edge, you can roll a piece of sandpaper into a tube, or wrap it over a sponge or piece of foam. If the frame is large or heavy, add a third loop in the middle of the bottom frame member and run the wire in a triangle around all three loops. The small site offers a good selection of free plans and instructions for incorporating wooden screws into a workbench. Matthew said he’s happy to do a custom hub if you are trying to match an old-school design on a workbench – vintage workbenches tend to have far more elaborate hubs than what you see today. And I was happy to get them, even though their quality isn’t even close to what you can buy today. But the traditional approach isn’t always the best method forever, and when a new technology comes along such as SketchUp woodworking software, it can make the shortcomings of a traditional approach blatantly apparent. After completing the model, I navigate to an empty area and drag parts of the model from the components window into the model space. The elapsed time between these two screen shots is about two minutes, far less time than it would take me to write a cutlist the traditional way. As a bonus, these patterns also gave me the exact location and size of the through mortises.
Just like anything else, it takes a little practice to become proficient with it, but it is well worth it. If you have a guide to explain how things work and what to practice, it isn’t bad at all. A hole in sketchup is not a circle but a series of lines thus using up memory and computing power. It saved me hundreds of dollars because I didn’t need to buy a bigger and better saw for my space-deprived shop.
I secured the plywood to the MDF with screws and trimmed it flush with a pattern bit in my router. Also, the front edge of the tabletop must be flat and perpendicular to the blade; this is the edge along which the T-square fence rides. This is the portion that rides along the front edge of the tabletop, so it must be flat, straight and perpendicular to the saw blade.
I applied a couple coats of polyurethane to the entire assembly, let it dry for a day or two, then added two coats of wax to create a slick surface. I am going to study this plan, take a stab at it and then research, research, research until I correct the problems. The students hailed from all over the country (Missouri, Alaska, Michigan), and so a portable version was necessary.
You also can shift the top several inches right before you start interfering with the vise nuts on the face vise side. Did you 1) cut a notch in the stretcher to allow room for the guide rods, or 2) move the top toward the left to allow the mechanism to fit?
Height adjustments are made using a crank handle that slips through the lift’s heavy-duty, aluminum top plate. With the vent properly dialed in, there is no place for dust to go other than into your collector.
The router table in this book is a lot like the one that Norm Abram made famous, with drawers for your bits.
The first place to look for information about old woodworking machinery is VintageMachinery.org.
Among the highlights is a great collection of pancake-powered woodworking tools, with photos available online.
Framing is actually a specialty within woodworking, and the people who do it all the time have it pretty well figured out. These should all fit easily in the opening without being forced; glazier points driven into the wood from behind the foam board hold everything together.
You can purchase these either at a frame shop (pricey) or a large crafts store (pretty reasonable). You can catch a variation you may have missed because the error will be doubled at the corner. Glass-smooth surfaces on the miters may be impressive, but they won’t show in the finished frame.
Special clamps, such as the spring clamps shown in the photo below, pull the faces of the joint toward one another, and are more effective than the clamps you use every day. This will take the weight of the frame off the joints at the bottom and transfer it to the wire. The first image (at right) is the illustration as it appeared in print, and the second image (at left) is the cutlist published in the magazine. This is a simple piece with few parts, but I use the same approach with more complex projects. It is also far more useful because I can include additional information, such as the size and location of joints, and when I refer to it I don’t have to find a detail in the drawing then hunt it down in the cutlist. I have designed many virtual projects, including cabinets, tool stands, workbench, kitchen remodel, new workshop, barn, tractor shed, and many small shop projects. If you can print a full size plot, Pro must have a much more robust print algorithm than Free. The only drawback is that it’s possible to cover the crank location if you’re using an oversized jig. Drive them in from the top and bottom rather than the sides of the frame and they won’t be obviously visible. There is a special driver for these points, but if you don’t want to buy a tool for one task, you can push in the points with the end of a common screwdriver.
As a reader, you expect to see this form and we’ve never really questioned whether or not this is what we should print. When the parts are in the model, I move and rotate them so that they are in the same neighborhood. The other benefit is that if I have a carefully constructed model – I don’t need to do any calculating to arrive at sizes. I totally agree with Bob that it does not cut into my shop time, but makes my time in the shop way more productive, and helps my goofy brain avoid costly mistakes with expense hardwood. A lot of us using Free have a terrible time just having it print on a single page, at any scale. Especially if you’re a beginner who is just now building out your shop, I think you’ll find these very helpful. We do it this way because we’ve always done it this way, as have other publications for the last century or so. What I’m after is an arrangement where I can clearly see the size and shape of each part.
All I need to do is click on the right points in the model with the dimension tool, and SketchUp lets me know what the real sizes are.
But the reasons why these types of drawings were developed isn’t because they are the best way to communicate information, this tradition developed because this is a quick and easy way to create a technical drawing by hand and put it on the printed page. My current project, the kitchen remodel mentioned above, is using all new appliances, and it makes it very easy to find the best relationship in a 3D virtual environment that is very easy to create.